An 18-year-old man crashed his Chevy Blazer into the playground at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds late Thursday morning.

Hunter Rothrock had been doing donuts in the gravel parking by the tennis courts when he reportedly lost control of his vehicle and plowed through the playground fence.

Rothrock was unhurt. According to witnesses, there was no one on the playground at the time of the incident.

Rothrock's friends, Josh Mellor, Tito Blow and D.J. Ungren witnessed part of the crash from the other side of the playground. They saw Rothrock come out of a turn and head toward the fence before hearing a loud crash and seeing smoke, they said.

The four young men attend Olympic and Central Kitsap high schools. Prior to the incident they said they had been attending a class reunion at Woodlands Elementary School.

Instead of returning to their schools, which they claimed were on early release, they headed over to the Fairgrounds parking lot.

Pam Swenson, Rothrock's grandmother, told her grandson and his friends that they needed to think before they did things like this.

"It could have been so much worse," she told them. "There could have been kids here."

Police issued Rothrock a $550 ticket and cited him for reckless driving, he said. Kitsap County Parks and Recreation showed up at the scene and talked with Rothrock but did not appear to issue any citations or bills of their own at that point in time.

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